Rick Pullen

Aspired to be Perry Mason as a kid. Fell in love with investigative journalism, then realized fiction would be the closest he’d get to telling the whole truth.

About Rick Pullen

RICK PULLEN is a journalist by trade who began his novel-writing career in 2011. Naked Ambition, his first novel, made Amazon’s bestseller thriller list in 2016, just three weeks after it was published. The Apprentice was published in 2017, and Naked Truth, a sequel to Naked Ambition, followed in 2018. His agent is John Talbot. His publisher is Koehler Books.

Visit Rick Pullen’s website to learn more.

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BOOKS

Naked Ambition (May 2016)

The Apprentice (December 2017)

Naked Truth (September 2018)

Biggest literary influences:
Dashiell Hammett, Scott Turow, Lee Child, Steve Berry and Lawrence Block

Last book read:
The Wife Between Us by by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

The book that changed your life:
Scott Turow’s Presumed Innocent. I stayed up late three nights in a row to finish it. The twists and turns amazed me and influenced my writing.

Your favorite literary character:
Bernie Rhodenbarr, Lawrence Block’s burglar, who constantly finds himself in the middle of a murder he stumbles upon while in the act of burglarizing a Manhattan apartment. He spends the rest of the novel proving he didn’t do it. Simply brilliant! I love his interplay with his gay poodle groomer girlfriend. The dialogue is masterfully witty. Block is the best crafter of witty dialogue since Dashiell Hammett.

Currently working on:
Silent Partner, a domestic thriller.

Words to live by:
“Butt in the chair.”

Advice to new and aspiring authors:
Butt in the chair.

Testimonials

Rick Pullen attended a workshop I gave in 2015. I read an excerpt of Naked Ambition at that time and saw the obvious potential. But even that preview did not prepare me for what I just finished reading. The novel is fun, smart, and topical without ever getting preachy. The characters, though comic in design, bear an eerie similitude with their real-world counterparts. Beck and Geneva in particular continue to inhabit my thoughts even now that their story is over. Time and time again I was surprised by the plot twists — so often, while expecting the story to zig, I watched it zag in an utterly plausible but unforeseeable way, which made it impossible to stop turning pages. There’s also plenty of raucous wit, wicked detail, and hard-won wisdom — Mister Pullen knows the world of which he speaks — and I even learned a few things, like the distinction between Padrons and Cohibas, and what constitutes the Washington version of safe sex.
- David Corbett, award-winning author of The Mercy of the Night
Pullen has written a solid, descriptive thriller that shows that he is well-informed and savvy about the newspaper business and the political world...and in Pullen's hands the shady and sometimes judicious relationships among government, business, and journalism are shown in a penetrating and astute manner.
- Kirkus Reviews
Naked Ambition draws you in early and won't let go until you've devoured every last page. Pullen has crafted a masterful narrative that casts post-Citizens United abuses of power in nuanced layers of suspense and intrigue.
- Steve Giegerich, author of Body of Knowledge